Contest

I have a copy of the popular cookbook, “The Whole Foods Kosher Kitchen” written by my dear friend and professional chef extraordinnaire, Levana Kirschenbaum, to give away. Here’s how you can win it in time for Pesach! This cookbook is chock full of gluten-free & Passover-friendly recipes.

Go ahead and ‘like‘ The Kosher Shopaholic &/or Levana’s Facebook pages, and/orsubscribe to The Kosher Shopaholic or Levana Cooks emails using the Rafflecopter widget below. Each of these actions gets you an additional entry to win this awesome cookbook.

<a href=”http://rafl.es/enable-js”>You need javascript enabled to see this giveaway</a>.You can also buy this gorgeous cookbook online here as well.

Sign up for one of Levana’s famous live cooking demos – fans claim that Levana’s demos are ‘better than a Broadway show’. I reviewed a demo that I attened a few months back in this post here.

Recipes

Here are some of the best of Levana’s recipes Kosher for Passover & all year round: Tricolor Terrine, Roast Beef with wild mushroom sauce, Molten Chocolate cakes. These make one heck of an impressive meal for Passover!

Tricolor Terrine

You will create a sensation with this dish! It will make you look like a chef without too much hard work. You will like the freedom it gives you on party day, as you can make it a day or two ahead of time and keep it chilled. Passover winner too! If you get ambitious, layer the mixture in a dozen greased muffin tins and invert them at serving time

Place the leeks, potatoes, turnips, parsnips and celery root, with water to barely cover, in a heavy pot, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for 20 to 30 minutes, or until all the vegetables are tender. If you have any liquid left in the pot, reduce on a high flame. The mixture must be absolutely dry. Transfer to the bowl of a food processor fitted with a metal chopping blade. Add the oil, nutmeg, eggs, flour, salt and pepper, and process the whole mixture, in batches if necessary, until perfectly smooth.

Preheat the oven to 375*f.

Grease a 2-quart rectangular mold with straight sides, and line with plastic wrap, letting the excess overhang. Divide the mixture in thirds, and place in three bowls. Process one third in the food processor with the spinach and the basil until smooth. Pack tightly in the mold. Pack the second (white) third on top of the green layer in the mold. Process the last third with the sun-dried tomatoes until smooth (rinse and dry the bowl of the food processor first to get rid of the green batch), and pack tightly on top of the white layer in the mold. Fold the overhanging plastic on top of the mold. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is firm. Chilled the mold. Serve alone or with red pepper sauce (recipe follows).

Red pepper sauce

2 red peppers

1/2 cup basil leaves, packed

2 large cloves garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

2 tablespoons paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Bottled hot sauce or cayenne to taste

Puree all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Store refrigerated in a glass jar.

Roast Beef With Wild Mushroom Sauce

Only for festive occasions, as it is more expensive than I like my dishes to be, but it will be the best roast you will ever have, and the sauce is to die for. I find that starting the roast at such high temperature sears it right in the baking pan, right in the oven (in other words, without the extra step of searing it in a skillet first, transferring to a roasting pan, etc.) and ensures a wonderful crust and a rare center—the way we love a roast to be! Use a real, not disposable, pan please: You will see the difference at dinnertime!

Ingredients:

1 6–7 pound shoulder roast (beef or bison), tied, at room temperature

2 large onions, thinly sliced (food processor)

8 cloves garlic

6 bay leaves, or 1 teaspoon ground

2 good pinches saffron

2 teaspoons turmeric

2 tablespoons coarsely ground pepper

¼ cup olive oil

1 cup dry red wine (variation: 1 can dark stout beer)

4–5 sprigs rosemary

7–8 sprigs thyme

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 500°F. Place the roast in a pan just large enough to contain it. Mix all remaining ingredients in a bowl. Pour over the roast. Bake, loosely covered with foil, for half an hour. Uncover and reduce the oven temperature to 350°F. Bake 1½ hours longer. The roast will be medium rare. Transfer the roast to a cutting board. Strain the contents of the pan, pressing hard on the solids, into a bowl, and reserve for the mushroom sauce (recipe follows).
Discard the solids. Let stand about 10 minutes before slicing. Slice thin and serve with the sauce. Makes 8 servings.

Wild mushroom sauce

Get whatever wild mushrooms are available and affordable. Reducing the sauce takes only a few minutes. Sauce reduction is the ultimate cooking secret, across the board: Do not neglect this reducing step by trying to thicken the liquids with some starch. You will lose the integrity and intensity of the flavors—it won’t be nearly as good!

Heat the oil in a large skillet. Add the mushrooms and sauté. Add the reserved cooking liquid and cook until the liquids reduce to about 2 cups and thicken slightly. Serve with the sliced roast.

Molten Chocolate cakes

If there is anyone who doesn’t go gaga over these little gems with the runny gooey centers, I have never met them! Alas, no baking in advance and no reheating, or they won’t be, well, molten chocolate cake: runny and gooey! The great news is, (a) they are nothing to prepare even though they look and taste as if they came out of the best restaurant, and (b) the batter can be made and poured in advance in individual ramekins or muffin molds and refrigerated until ready to use, and I mean it literally: You could stick them in the oven as you are resetting for dessert—they will be ready in minutes.

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Melt the chocolate, margarine, coffee, and cocoa over very low heat, or microwave in a bowl for 1 to 2 minutes. In a food processor, beat the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the chocolate mixture and mix. Add the flour and vanilla and pulse until just combined. Pour the mixture into 8 to 10 greased ramekins or muffin molds and bake about 12 minutes, or until the top is barely set and the center is still slightly wet. Watch the baking closely after the first 12 minutes: Do not overbake, or the center will solidify. Err on the side of caution and bake rather less than more: Invert just one on a plate—if it’s too runny, don’t worry, just stuff it right back in its mold and return all the molds to the oven for another couple minutes. Invert the cakes onto dessert plates and serve immediately while hot, alone, or with vanilla or coffee ice cream or coconut sorbet. Makes 8 to 10 servings.